[ADB]

So, last night when trying to start my bike, the lights came on, fuel pump kicked in, and then when i hit the start button everything went dead. I turned the key off, tried again, and nothing...so, after a brief inspection of possible causes, I realized that some how, the ground wire to the negative terminal on my battery had somehow snapped at the point where it actually meets the wire, (see photo).
So, i was thinking easy fix; just run to the hardware store, grab a connector that will fit on the negative terminal to the battery, connect it to the ground wire, and be done with it.
But before doing that, i figured I'd check with everyone to see if:
a) am I not thinking of something that might cause a short or is there a certain gauge wire connector I should make sure to use, and;
b) has this happened to anyone else?
I'm dumbfounded how this could have happened; no pressure on the cable and there wasn't any corrosion or anything amiss i could see about the battery, battery cover, ect.
As always, any input would be greatly appreciated.
Adam.

[barenekd]

Probably just broke from vibration. It could've gotten a little harmonic going and work hardened the metal.  Get the heaviest connector that will fit in the available space. Fortunately, not very common.
Bare

[ADB]

Thanks for the reply...problem solved, found the part i needed for a grand total of $2.45 for the pair.
Still think it's weird this happened on a bike that's 2 months old and only has 1500 miles on it, but all part of the charm.

[Ducati Scotty]

It's happened to me too.  The stock cOnnectors are not very tough.

Scott

[TWinOKC]

The same thing happened to me.  I was about 20 miles from home , the bike started loosing power, backfiring.  I limped it to a safe place to see what was going on, it idled just fine.  I turned key off, looked over the bike.  Turned the key back on, no lights, no fuel pump.  Trailered it home and discovered the end of the battery cable was broken exactly like yours.  I went to Lowe's and got a new cable end, all is well again.  Like bare said, probably due to vibration.

[Arizoni]

Little pissy things like this should be mentioned by Kevin to Royal Enfield.
No, it's not a biggie but I'm sure this sort of thing happens to a lot of owners and it usually gets fixed by a smart owner or a repair shop and nothing further comes of it.

In design engineering when we were designing a new gas turbine and jet engine  we always tried to fix the known problems but little stuff that annoys the hell out of the owners but that never gets fed back to engineering would never get fixed.  After all, "it must be working OK or we would have heard about it by now." was the common thought.

[BRADEY]

Very true. RE must definitely look into this seriously....mine conked off on the second service.

[GSS]

My negative terminal also broke right at the bend in the metal......no corrosion or any other issue.......just came apart one day.  I replaced both the negative and positive terminals with heavy duty connectors like those shown in the earlier post.

[shamelin]

So weird...

I had a total electrical failure on my 2011 B5 with about 1.5K miles on it.  I couldn't kick start or push start.  I looked though the forum for advice and started to work through the electrical components.  My battery had 12.5 V but nothing else was getting juice.  After taking off the headlight, jiggling and looking for worn wires, taking the hex nut off the ignition and making sure all was connected, testing each fuse for continuity, checking each relay, and disconnecting the kickstand safety switch, I was still stuck.  Each time I tried to find electricity, even one step past the battery, I was getting nothing.

Then I looked at the cable again.  My positive lead connector had snapped, same as ADB.  The battery cable was connected to the battery by the cap cover, making it look like all was OK on first glance.

I just figured it out today, picked up a cable connecter from my local bike shop, and reassembled everything I took apart.  Works fine now.  I was going to post and let everyone know about this flaw, but it seems that I'm not the only one who's had to suffer through this.

Definitely seems like a design flaw.  I had to spend 3 hours drinking beers with homeless people and watching guys go in and out of an adult bookstore while I waited for my tow. 

[Arizoni]

So which book did you get? 

[dynamyt]

Thanks for the heads up. I'm going to check both of mine when I get rid of the 1980s technology battery ....

[GreenMachine]

Must be a bad batch of cable..I had both cables off when I installed that Gel battery last year, it required cable rerouting due to the polarity switch and the year before  when I cleaned up the ground connection behind the battery box with a dremel..Now that I think of it, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to just replace it with new wire anyway..GM

[shamelin]

So which book did you get? 

It was a double feature video... Easy Rider and The Wild One.  Naturally. 

[gremlin]

Thanks for the reply...problem solved, found the part i needed for a grand total of $2.45 for the pair.
Still think it's weird this happened on a bike that's 2 months old and only has 1500 miles on it, but all part of the charm.

Warranty.

[barenekd]

Guys, read your warranty carefully.

There is a line, "Warranty is not applicable for the following parts:" Bullet 4 "Electrical items like bulbs, WIRING HARNESS, switches, battery, fuses, electric start motors, etc"
That etcetera can cover (or not) a lot of expensive bits!

The great warranty we would seem to have actually has a lot of big holes in it.
Bare